𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 (EDITING)

[𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 1] 𝘈 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳

We were all giggling in Meg and Amy's room, we were going to do something exhilarating! "Get ready. " Meg whispered. The girls and I began to undress into our petty coats. We were giggling loudly until Beth sushed us, we can't wake Marmee up, she would be very upset that we were up so late... I helped put Amy's hair down then I began to unbraid my hair.

Meg, Beth, Amy, and I turned to see Jo open the door, she had scissors in her hand. She closed the door and said with a mischievous look, "Got them!".

Meg said, "Jo, those are the kitchen scissors!" 

Beth and Amy giggled as Jo looked over them, "They're good and sharp." She said as she tried to reason with Meg. 

"Please don't make me go first. " Beth requested. 

"No. " Jo said with another mischievous look. "Amy's first. " 

I gasped as the others laughed. We all moved to sit down on the bed as Jo scooted closer to Amy.

"If I must make this sacrament, I do it gladly. " Amy bravely said as Jo looked for a strand of hair to choose from.

"Jo, do a strand near the back of her neck. It won't be as noticeable." I said. It would look quite bad with a random strand that's shorter than the others. 

"But don't you dare take more than a half-inch!" Amy said nervously as Jo pulled the strand she chose. We all giggled until Jo put the strand of hair in between the blades of the scissors, and then with a swift snip, her hair was cut.

Amy gasped as she looked at her cut hair, "Oh, Jo! It was too much!" 

"It was a half-inch, Amy. " Jo reassured. 

"I'll go next!" I piped up, Jo pulled a strand of my hair out and did the same thing. I gasped and giggled. "I hope Father appreciates this. ". 

"He will. " Meg said with a smile.

"I'll go, I better get this over with. " Beth nervously said, Jo, giggled and went closer to her. I stood up to grab the ribbon and our name tags. I then went back to the bed and sorted our hair with our name tags and tied them together with the ribbons. One by one, each of us had our strands of hair ready for Father's letter. 

"They're ready!" I said with excitement. 

We all giggled and Meg said, "Father will now have a piece of us with him while he's gone..." 

I nodded, "I'll give these to Marmee while we write our letter."

Later that day we ended our letter with, "Merry Christmas, Father. With our fondest love... Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, and Eliza."

Jo walked into the room with an armful of wood logs and threw them into the fire. Oliver was playing with the other kittens as I knitted his winter sweater, I decided to use the purple yarn Marmee got me for my birthday because it would look lovely against his black and white fur.

Jo laid down with her back on the floor next to the kittens and disappointedly said, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents." 

"Jo, get up off of the rug. That party dress is in a bad enough state as it is. " Meg said as she mended Jo's other dress. Jo rolled over to rest her chin in her hands. 

"We agreed not to have any presents this year. We said we didn't mind as long as we had Marmee and Father and each other." Beth reminded us. 

"Beth, we haven't got a father. And we shan't have him for ever such a long time. Not until the war ends." Jo exasperated. 

"Well, at least we shall have each other. " I said with a reassuring smile. I continued my knitting as Amy yelled.

 "Meg! I found Jo's gloves. They're all creased and sticky. " Amy sat down on the floor and I grimaced.